The difference between South Carolina — where Gingrich had a double-digit victory on Jan. 21 — and Florida came from the former U.S. House speaker's inability to lock up the state's most conservative voters, including Tea Party members and evangelical voters.

Although two out of three GOP voters who went to the polls on Tuesday said they supported the Tea Party, Gingrich failed to win a significant advantage with those voters over Romney, exit polls showed.

Some 40 percent of the voters who said they supported the Tea Party voted for Romney, while 38 percent backed Gingrich, the exit polls showed.

Gingrich also barely held off Romney among the evangelical voters, edging the former Massachusetts governor by a 39-36 percent margin.

The weak showing by Gingrich among Florida's conservative voters allowed Romney to overwhelm him with his advantage among more moderate voters, women and Hispanic voters, whom Romney claimed by a 53-to-30-percent margin.

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Republican political consultant Rick Wilson said the Romney campaign used the "entire spectrum of messaging" — including television ads, radio ads and direct mail — to undermine Gingrich's credibility among Florida's more conservative voters, raising issues such as Gingrich's $1.6 million contract with Freddie Mac, the federal mortgage agency.

"Those were the keys that unlocked the Tea Party votes for Mitt Romney," Wilson said. "Romney found a way to win over those voters that nobody predicted he could."

In a 15-minute post-primary speech, Gingrich still maintained he was a better conservative alternative to Romney. He never mentioned his opponent by name, nor did he congratulate him for his Florida victory.

"I think Florida did something very important coming on top of South Carolina," Gingrich said. "It is now clear this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate."

With his supporters holding signs that said "46 states to go," Gingrich said the message was for "the elite media."

"We're going to contest every place and we are going to win and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August," he said, bringing chants of "Newt, Newt, Newt" from a crowd of about 200 supporters.

With Romney's campaign outspending him by some $15 million to $3 million, Gingrich called it an "onslaught" but then he quoted a portion of Abraham Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, calling for "a government of the people, by the people, for the people."

"And we're going to have people power defeat money power in the next six months," Gingrich said.

Some of his supporters acknowledged those financial hurdles.

"I don't think anything changed from South Carolina to here, except one thing: Romney spent a bunch of money, ran a negative campaign and bought Florida," said Wayne Brooks, 67, who drove from Ponte Vedra Beach to be at the Gingrich headquarters. "I'm very disappointed."

Lloyd Dunkelberger

Lloyd Dunkelberger is the Htpolitics.com Capital Bureau Chief.
He can be reached by email or call 850 556-3542.
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Last modified: January 31, 2012
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